Differences in Emotional Labor Across Cultures: A Comparison of Chinese and U.S. Service Workers

Purpose In the global economy, the need for understanding cross-cultural differences and the customer service-related processes involved in emotional labor is evident. The current study attempts to examine this issue by developing and testing hypotheses pertaining to cross-cultural differences between U.S. and Chinese service workers on the levels of display rule perceptions, emotion regulation, and burnout (i.e., emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment, and depersonalization) as well as the relationships among these variables. Design/Methodology/Approach Data was collected from service workers in the U.S. (n=280) and China (n=231). We tested for measurement differences, mean differences, and differences in the relationships among emotional labor variables between the two samples using a variety of analyses. Findings It was found that the relatively robust sequence of display rules to surface acting to burnout was observed in a U.S. sample but was not observed in a Chinese sample, with some relationships being significantly weaker in the Chinese sample (e.g., surface acting to burnout dimensions) and others exhibiting relationships with the opposite sign (e.g., display rules were negatively related to surface acting in the Chinese sample). Implications The results of this study suggest that many of the relationships among emotional labor variables vary as a function of the cultural context under consideration. Originality/Value This is the first study to directly compare emotional labor across samples from Eastern and Western cultures. Additionally, this study begins to answer questions concerning why models of emotional labor generated in a Western culture may not apply in other cultures

Different fits satisfy different needs: Linking person-environment fit to employee commitment and performance using self-determination theory

Ministry of Education, Singapore under its Academic Research Funding Tier

Emotional Labor Actors: A Latent Profile Analysis of Emotional Labor Strategies

Research on emotional labor focuses on how employees utilize 2 main regulation strategies—surface acting (i.e., faking one’s felt emotions) and deep acting (i.e., attempting to feel required emotions)—to adhere to emotional expectations of their jobs. To date, researchers largely have considered how each strategy functions to predict outcomes in isolation. However, this variable-centered perspective ignores the possibility that there are subpopulations of employees who may differ in their combined use of surface and deep acting. To address this issue, we conducted 2 studies that examined surface acting and deep acting from a person-centered perspective. Using latent profile analysis, we identified 5 emotional labor profiles—non-actors, low actors, surface actors, deep actors, and regulators—and found that these actor profiles were distinguished by several emotional labor antecedents (positive affectivity, negative affectivity, display rules, customer orientation, and emotion demands–abilities fit) and differentially predicted employee outcomes (emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and felt inauthenticity). Our results reveal new insights into the nature of emotion regulation in emotional labor contexts and how different employees may characteristically use distinct combinations of emotion regulation strategies to manage their emotional expressions at work

Humility breeds authenticity: How authentic leader humility shapes follower vulnerability and felt authenticity

Ministry of Education, Singapore under its Academic Research Funding Tier

Leader Humility in Singapore

Singapore Management University, Human Capital Leadership Institute, BSI

Self-regulation during a single performance episode: Mood-as-information in the absence of formal feedback

This investigation used a daily diary methodology to examine goal revision and effort allocation processes over a single, 2-weeks performance episode in which individuals prepared for a course exam. Growth curve modeling revealed that daily goal exhibited a curvilinear trend in which it was stable and relatively high at the beginning of the time period, but rapidly declined as the exam approached. Daily effort exhibited a trend opposite of the goal trend, remaining low and relatively stable at the beginning and increasingly rapidly as the exam approached. Current mood predicted daily goal revision, with positive mood being positively related to goal revision and negative mood being negatively related to goal revision. The traits of behavioral activation system (BAS) sensitivity and behavioral inhibition system (BIS) sensitivity moderated within-person relationships of positive and negative mood with goal revision. Simultaneous and lagged relationships among mood, goals, and daily effort were also examined.Goal revision Mood-as-information Optimism shifts Hyperbolic discounting Growth curve modeling Behavioral activation system Behavioral inhibition system